Not so long ago, I found out that my father, Romeo Girard, was indeed a Romeo. I have a brother I didn't know about and he lives in Alberta. That was the first WOW!
I had never been to western Canada, but I had always wanted to visit it. Now, I had a great reason to go there, but I needed a companion because I'm not as able bodied as I once was. My daughter, Nancy, will soon celebrate a milestone birthday so I asked her if she would like to go. She said yes. Hooray! I began to plan our trip.
My brother is much younger than me and still works full-time so we arranged to meet on a weekend. I did not want to fly on a weekend and I needed to book the days away that would suit my daughter's work schedule so; we flew out to Calgary via West Jet on a Thursday and returned on the following Thursday. We had a rental car and our hotel was near the airport. It turns out that my brother, Lorne, is a man with a warm heart who gives great hugs and does have some of my father's facial features. There is a lot of history to share as we learn about each other and our families.
While I was planning the trip, I had contacted three fellow writers, two of them were folks I only knew through my years of posting on Facebook. The response from all three was amazing. Another WOW!
My dear friend, Lori Hahnel, offered to drive us to and from Banff, and did. She also joined us for lunch three times. I am very thankful for her friendship, she went not just the extra mile, but many extra miles for us, and we always had more to say. Her latest novel, Flicker, is available from University of Calgary Press. It's excellent.
Lori Roadhouse Haney, who is a poet and educator, and Ted Haney invited us for supper at their home and delighted Nancy with three Alberta beef choices. They have travelled the world and we especially enjoyed hearing about their years in Burma. Not only did they feed us, but also, thanks to Ted's membership in a Scots whisky club, I sampled a lovely smokey one.
Lee Kvern and Paul Rasporich invited us to visit them after our lunch in Okotoks and they offered us fresh pastries from the local French bakery. Their home is filled with their art it is fascinating to see the contrast in their styles. Both of them are painters, and both write, too. We were given prints of Lee and Paul's work to take home. Lee has another book coming out in 2025. Paul and Lee had a joint art exhibition recently. Paul has a series of how-to-draw videos on YouTube and they are terrific. Look for Art with Raspo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTZL9k8yKxs WOW!
One of the highlights of the trip was seeing the mountains in Banff National Park. There were clouds but they simply added to the majesty of the Rockies and made their height and grandeur more evident. While we were there we had lunch in the Vermillion room of the Banff Springs Hotel. If you ever go there, be prepared to spend spend spend, but I would do it again if I could. WOW!
Calgary sprawls over miles and miles - and the road directions can be confusing - Crowfoot Trail South East, North made no sense to us at first but GPS saved us even if we had to loop the loop to find our way, but hey! it's the west and it's a go- big place. I have pictures.
Until next time.
